


ASTRO

by TheAppleCity



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alpha Allura (Voltron), Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha Lotor (Voltron), Alpha Shiro (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Beta Coran (Voltron), Beta Hunk (Voltron), Beta Pidge | Katie Holt, Beta/Beta, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mutual Pining, Omega Keith (Voltron), Other, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Underage Drinking, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:47:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23237170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAppleCity/pseuds/TheAppleCity
Summary: Set in a dimension where the Galran Empire has expanded unimaginably into the galaxy, Zarkon has appropriated new weapons in order to push back the new surge of power Voltron has utilized to rebel against the empire. Using advanced biogenetic technology, Zarkon has turned unmated omegas into the ultimate weapon. A warrior neither male nor female.One of these such warriors is a former man and Second Prince to the empire named Keith.Keith, along with his brother, The First Prince Lotor, and a small band of assassins, is tasked with ridding the universe of Voltron once and for all. He is ruthless, brutal, and the biggest hater of all the alpha in the universe.Lance loves romance. Granted he's a huge flirt who just wants to please his future omega. Spoil them raw, the motto to live by. So when Voltron's next mission is to assassinate some leader of this Galran hit squad, he's more than surprised when he peering through his sniper lens at sexy, feisty galran omega. Only, things get complicated when this assassination mission turns into an abduction mission in an attempt to cripple the Empire, and Lance decides to take this spicy omega as his mate. An adventure full of romance, mystery, and Voltron!
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Allura/Shiro (Voltron), Haggar/Zarkon (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith & Lotor (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 127





	1. Prolouge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The adventure- one of betrayal, loyalties, and the ultimate fight for power- begins...

The room was dimly lit, the fluorescent light bulbs glowing a dim haze of blue-ish white. Long ominous shadows were cast menacingly in the sharp corners and the sleek tiles softly glistened in the hazy light. The walls were drenched in cheap lemon cleaner in the small, cramped room. The smell alone was enough to make any sensible person gag.

And Keith was gagging.

He squeezed his eyes shut, a wave of nauseous slowly washing over him. _96 hours_. That's all that Keith could properly comprehend, give or take the time gaps that he had been unconscious for. He sighed. The thick black leather straps dug into his wrist and ankles, a huge bruise slowly forming on the pale color of his skin. The surgical scars were still a baby light pink and fresh in the pain, along with the pounding headache that was beating loudly like thunder in his brain.

Keith breathed slowly, trying to unravel his many thoughts flooding throughout his brain. _Tests... medications...surgery... warriors... galran... kingdoms... Loyalties... Zarkon... assassins... Voltron._ It was all slowly unraveling step by step. The painful memories from his past bubbled within him, nauseating him. He held back his vomit, lolling his head from side to side. The drugs were still in effect and the current IV connected to his left arm wasn't helping him at all.

His eye snapped to the large rusted metal door being opened with a loud groan, listening closely to the dainty footsteps walking towards the surgical table. "How has he been reacting to the alpha-testing?" said a voice, low in volume but strained and exhausted. A male most definitely, one in his later years. _That is..._ _Professor Sendak_ z... _what was he doing here?_ Sendak has been dead for years, yet in his condition, Keith was absolutely sure that the voice belonged to him. "He's a positive in all of the testing, the most promising out of all of the candidates. Even with the given contingencies, Lotor wasn't as successful as he was. There's a good possibility that he will become a most ambitious leader, and serve our glorious empire well."

Keith's heart began racing, beating loudly within his chest. What were they talking about? Him...A leader? Better than even _Lotor_ , Emperor Zarkon blood son? The figure came into view leaning over the surgical table to take a better look at him, shining an impossibly bright light into his left eye. Keith, unable to focus his eyes properly, squinted beyond the shine of the luminous tube and peered at the source of the voice.

" _Vrepit Sa_ "

In an instant Keith's entire body went numb, his eyes went hazy and his surrounding blurred into the fluorescent light. Everything relaxed, wetness pooling our around his thighs as his bladder emptied unknowingly and burning tears streaking down his cheeks. All of the thoughts that had occupied his brain suddenly burst and began swirling around like a whirlpool. His chapped lips parted, and before he knew it, he had already started speaking, the first in almost 96 hours. His vocal cords started to string and in a choked, dry voice he whispered...

" ** _Vrepit Sa_** "


	2. The Blue Paladin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet the Blue Paladin, an Alpha f*ck boy who loves his women.

_Never waste time, because you never know when there will be any time to waste._

Lance remembered that exact saying, the same saying that his Abuela would repeat to him on a daily basis. Being an invalid, there was little she could do but spread her wisdom as she was dealt the short end of the stick in life. In some cases, her advice was actually helpful, but other times, she would say that it was 'meant for a much later date'. That later date was now.

Soon after becoming a paladin of Voltron, Lance realized that the chances of him ever going back home to earth were diminishing. While he knew that it was for the good of the whole universe, it bugged him to no end at the fact that his life would forever be lost in time. How could you properly know what time it was when you're surrounded by nothing but an empty void of space? He was going to new places, seeing new sights...and time moved differently for each.

So, to distract himself from fully realizing the painful truth of his situation, Lance turned to galactical girls. Girls were great on Earth, but better in space. Time and time again, a new beauty was welcomed aboard the ship and stuck around for maybe 2 or 3 months before the relationship was over and she was dropped back at her house. This cycle continued for almost a year now, and the whole Voltron team was, quite simply, getting tired of it. They had confronted Lance about it several times, telling him that this was not healthy, but he simply joked it off.

In all honesty, what he really wanted was to meet his mate. Could you imagine? A mate that would be worthy of him and he would be worthy of them. He wanted only one girl, for one lifetime, for one universe. Being able to wake up next to them every day, rub their feet when their sore, cuddle them when their cold....it was all Lance ever dreamed about. But so far that had never happened. Every time he was so close to finding "the one", he was brought back to reality with a disturbing habit that his past "lovers" had. A perfect example was Jupī, an alien from the Solaris species on planet Solari. Cute, fun, easy to please, and always had some form of wit that was either smart alic-y or purely punny. All this was good, great even. But Jupī had a knack for eating.......dicks. So after nearly having his "little friend" chopped off in the middle of a heated sex session, she was promptly dropped back off on her planet with a "sorry, not sorry" note attached to her luggage.

The team had always wanted to confront Lance again on his "mating problem", with a little more force, but the time just never seemed right. Lance was either kicking butt out on the battlefield or he was in his room, coping with the fact he could never return home. Either way, neither times were comfortable or acceptable to the other paladins. After all, we all cope differently to different things. But this endless cycle of meeting, heat, Yeet, all came to a halt when Allura began blasting over the intercoms for an important team meeting what one could only assume was around 2:36 am.

Lance crawled sluggishly out of his bed, his dark blue covers slowly fall off his bare shoulders. He yawned, cracking out his knots in his neck and back from a thankless, sleepless nights rest. Like he needed to be briefed about another mission, or lectured on how reckless he could be when he wants to be a so-called "hero". The princess just didn't understand the importance of sleep. Not someone like her who has been asleep for, like, 10,000 years. He stumbled out of bed, grabbing his robe before heading over to the special room at the very front of the ship. Not like he hasn't been here before. Naturally, he was the last one there, and he honestly couldn't care less.

The team was already there, all dressed in pj's and listening to Allura as she showed off another random planet that Lance (up till now) had never known existed. "Lance. Nice of you to join us" Allura sarcastically greeted, her smug smirk matching Lance's own. He put a hand on his hips, examining the hologramed planet spinning before all the other paladins. It doesn't seem like a "vacation" kind of planet him, and for several reasons why. It was a deep sort of purple-ish blue color, with swirling black clouds and random craters visible from space. There was no greenery, and from what Lance could tell from the screenshots orbiting the hologram, a good 2/3 of the planet was a bare wasteland. No oceans or any other kinds of water, and no moon orbiting it either. It looked boring, nothing fun to do there. And Lance was 90% sure that there was some kind of flesh-eating monster hiding in some kind of enormous cave or whatever. Truly scary.....

"The planet you are looking at, now that you decided to join us, Lance-" Allura began, her voice containing an unreasonable amount of saltiness and pettiness...Something the princess seemed to have a lot of. "-is the planet Crevatan. This planet serves as a high-tech Galran base, housing much of the supply desperately needed for the galran warships. Intel from the Marmora Blades spies suggests that a new weapon, one stronger than anything the Galrans have ever previously developed, is being shipped there tonight. It's imperative that we intercept the weapon or infiltrate that base so we can destroy if. With our current time, we're looking more towards infiltration."

Lance let out a secret sigh. Another infiltration mission...just great. It's not like the last few ones were that much of a success...sarcastic wise. The more of these missions that they did, the more their performance nose-dived into the pit of failure. "Infiltration" was exactly the 'Voltron way'.

"How are we getting in, and what is everyone going to be doing?" Shiro asked, folding his immensely strong arms over his equally strong chest. He was always a step ahead, whether in plans or in the fighting. It was always a trait Shiro just seemed to carry better than the other paladins. Allura smiled at him before continuing, going on the explain all about the different roles the paladins would be performing. "Pidge you're on tech duty. Hack into the mainframe and get cameras, doors, pins, and anything that can grant us access to the weapon under control. Make sure their systems don't detect us coming either. Hunk and Shiro will split up at the north entrance and go through the west and east duct. You'll be placing sensors, helping Pidge gain more eyes and ears, as well as thoroughly checking out each of the eight containment units in the base." Shiro and Hunk did a small fist bump, their confident smiles mirroring each other.

"I will infiltrate the weaponry and see if I can at least find the weapon or plans of the weapon there. Lance, you're on sniper duty. You're our eyes in the sky" Lance gave a thumbs up, giving his comrades his signature competitive smirk, his eyes showing with the same amount of awesomeness Lance just seemed to have out of him. "Alright then. We'll leave in a small carrier, fixed with Pidge's cloaking device. It will be undetectable to the enemy. From there we'll have about two Vargas to find the weapon and steal or destroy it. Dismissed!" One by one the paladins exited the room, heading down to the castles docking bay.

 _A new weapon, eh_? Lance thought, his nonchalant tone causing whatever nerves he had at ease. Why be worried anyways? If worst comes to worst, they'll just blow the place up like always and it will all end there. Then he could get back to his reality: banging some out-of-this-world chics! But, like always, the universe had other plans. Why should anything go Lance's way? It's much more fun to see what he will do when his world goes topsy-turvy and he has to rearrange ALL his plans. And that's just what the universe was planning on doing. Destiny could have a price of the action, but whatever Lance wanted to happen, whatever he wanted to see come true, would be re-written for the sake of the universes entertainment.....as all of our lives are. Because just for the kicks...someone else was already living at that Crevatan base.....and that someone was a really, high tech weapon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heres that second Chapter that was revised and edited a thousand times. Hope you enjoy


	3. Crevatan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet Keith, a fearless Omega not one to take the empires bullshit lightly.

_____________•______________  
 **PLANET:** ** _CREVATAN_**  
 **•STATUS:** ** _uninhabited_**  
 **•GALRAN BASE NUMBER:**  
 ** _57390780_**  
 **•INCOMING ARRIVANTS:**  
 ** _Weapon OmegaX_**  
 ** _•_** **MISSION STATUS:** ** _cleared_**  
 **•MISSION ACCESS-**  
 **CREDENTIALS:** ** _level Imperial_**  
 ** _____________•______________**

The mission reports tell you almost everything you want to know. Where the planet is, the geography, the natives, animals, or even the kinds of food that's edible there.

But the mission report never mentioned to Keith that the wasteland that is Crevatan is f*cking cold!

Little white spectacles drifted through the barren wasteland, settling into a thick blanket on the ground. The wind howled, stirring up the freshly settled snow. The air was crisp with the uttering cold, and the bloodlust scent was thick and sweet.

  
The journey there was somewhat nerve-racking. Being the only omega on a bloodthirsty, sex-hungry galran ship almost made it unbearable to even breathe. Having those ogres of purple fur and yellow eyes staring at you famished made Keith want to vomit whatever horrible dinner he was force-fed a while ago.  
It didn't matter if he was originally a man and wanted to be considered one. His body had been changed, altered to fit a greater purpose. He was stronger, faster, smarter, and possessed more skills than any of the regular Galran soldiers.

He was the secret weapon.

Yet, that didn't stop the nasty giants from looking at him with those lust-filled eyes. It didn't matter if he was the cleaning service or the damned emperor! As long as he had breasts and a butt he would always be baiting those preying eyes.  
So yes, despite the horrid cold and worthless wasteland, Keith was actually quite glad to be on the planet, rather than being hunted down with piercingly, glowering eyes.  
It was just a checkpoint however, a midway between his true destination. The galran would be crashing a diplomatic celebration between the Oogrils and the Sidentiries tomorrow night on planet Yotuck. Keith had already been debriefed and given orders to sharpen up before heading out tomorrow. It was all very scheduled and so far sticking tot he original plan.

But things would be thrown horribly off course in a few minutes. Why? Because destiny can never really be sober and is most likely drunk half the time.

The large iron doors of the base squealed open, the rust of their hinges coated in thick slabs of snow.  
The base itself was fully armed and staffed with countless canons and soldiers watching over the snow hidden base. One of these soldiers escorted Keith down the narrow, carpeted halls and into a separate quarter. He gave Keith a key card and then promptly left, probably afraid he would say or do something wrong that would piss off the new weapon.

  
Keith opened the room, the smell of fresh Gail fruit wafting through the cabined air. His room was special, by far more luxurious than any of the standard galran soldier living quarters: There was a full king-sized bed, lavishly furnished with thick fur comforters and satin pillowcases. A wardrobe was idly standing on the corner next to a doorway leading to a fully functional bathroom, equipped with a bathtub and a shower. There was a large window on the wall to the left of the bed, the drapes shut and the door bolted shut, piles of snow stacking itself against the glass. 

  
Keith tossed his bag, fur coat, and a certain black knife onto the bed, walking towards the bathroom to take a hot shower. He had almost forgotten what he looked like under all the different layers. He took off his obsidian flex long sleeve shirt and stripped himself of his tight army pants, letting the articles of clothing fall to the floor.

  
His bare skin was red, around his nipples, stomach, hips, and necks. They were only red now, which was good since before they looked more purplish and unhealthy. They were surgical scars, given to him against his own will. You couldn't see them if you just looked at them, but they went much deeper than the surface. Each one held a different memory of pain, antagonizing, brutal pain. Pain that he would soon never forget.

  
Keith turned on the water, let it go until it ran warm, and then stepped into the bath. The warm water wrapped itself over his more sensitive areas, slowly massaging the aches and pains. He sighed, his clenched muscles soon relaxing and his mind beginning to tenderly unwind. Everything had happened so fast. Everything. The abduction, the surgery, the training, the ghost missions. It was all never-ending, with no time to stop and take a break, to let him breathe what was happening to him. They ran through all of it, with no peace or end in sight. That's not something you get to experience every day.

  
There wasn't anything to think about. Even as he cried out that he was fine the way he was, that didn't stop them from tearing him apart and putting him back together as they saw fit. He now had curves in places he shouldn't and a smell that aroused men more than usual. He wasn't Keith anymore. He was something much darker and much more sinister, made to serve a never-ending empire.

  
Lotor was galaxies away, as was the other teammates. This was Keith's last ghost mission before he was to lead them in the ultimate fight against Voltron. There was so much that was going to happen in the coming months, and none of it seemed to be good to him. None of it he had a choice of whether to do or don't or whether he would be fine with doing it or not. No one asked, so no one cared.

  
Keith got out of the tub and looked at himself in the mirror. He had one mission, one ode that he must keep sacred at all times. It was installed in him during training and rehearsed over and over again.

"Your team doesn't matter.  
Your life doesn't matter  
Your principles don't matter

Your one job is to destroy Voltron. Failure to comply will result in your life."

**_Vrepit Sa_ **

* * *

Lance was a sniper. And snipers always have to stay where the ground is high and where the area is isolated. Without those two conditions, you couldn't be a successful sniper. And Lance knew this, more than he wanted to admit.

However, that didn't make it any easier to accept the fact that he was the only paladin that had to stay outside in negative 20 degrees weather!

"It's f*cking cold!" Lance whined, rocking himself from side to side, trying to warm his body. An annoyed huff from Pidge cut through his intercom, following a snort from Allura."You're the sniper, Lance. We need eyes in the sky if we're going to infiltrate this bass without being spotted. Now please, shut your quiznak and do your job!"  
Lance gave a private eye roll as he continued to peep through his sniper lenses. There were soldiers marching up and down the base hallways and weird little drones hunting the skies. No one was getting in or out without being spotted.

Well, no one except the paladins of Voltron.  
  
Lance kept switching to different points at random, not really caring what he was looking at. That was until he settled on a single window. It was thick glass and was draped shut on the other side. Lance focused in, and honestly, he didn't know why. It was just a window, draped shut and not visible to him with just regular vision. So he switched to X-ray vision and peered right through the thick glass and even thicker grapes.

And Lance McClain, the blue paladin of Voltron and omega pleaser, nearly lost his sh*t by what he saw.

An omega that, without even thinking, he wanted to please more than anything.


	4. Infiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tries to meet Keith without coming across as a creepy stalker staring at him from the window.

Their body was curvy and Lance could tell that they were strong. He watched carefully as they wandered slowly to the edge of the bed and dropped their towel.

  
With a jerk, Lance yanked his sniper position away, made a small muffled sound, and rolled down to his right side and away from his original position. _Damn_ , he thought, a feeling of being flustered rising in his cheeks and warming his once cool body. The base, to his understanding, consisted of just a bunch of druids, bots, and half-assed trained Galran soldiers. Where this beauty came from and why they were there is something Lance wanted to know more than what the stupid weapon was at the base.

  
"Lance?" Allura's voice cut through Lance's thoughts. The blue paladin, more flustered than before, quickly resumed his sniper position, fumbling with his bayard and trying to get it back to what it was supposed to be and consequently what he was supposed to be doing: sniper and sniper-ing. "I-I am all g-good. Just, uh, slipped on some snow out here that's all" he stuttered through, trying to breathe normally and not think about the window.

  
"Stop being moron". It was Pidge this time. "You're supposed to be focusing on the position not making snow angels" With a huff, Lance set up his original position once again, giving a reluctant okay as he listened to the team continue on what they were doing. He closed his eyes, wiped some snow off his face, and continued looking through his lens at different angles and positions. And tried his hardest not to look at the window.

  
But his curiosity got the better of him.

  
He switched to 'see-through' a special lens from his Bayard and peered carefully through the window and the thick velvet drapes to the inside of the room. And to Lance's surprise, staring back at him was not galran fur or purple skin but, what he could only guess to be, the smoothest, silkiest, peachiest skin he has ever seen in his entire life.  
There were parts that were red and he could tell were sore as well as parts that looked like they had just soaked long and happily in a tub. The room itself was luxurious, nicely carpeted and the walls were gleaming a far more expensive material than the normal barracks than most galran soldiers are confined too. Lance focused more closely on the individual at hand, this slightly tall dark-haired person, confined within this unimaginable room with this unimaginable body.

  
Lance, being as practical as he was, knew that he was never going to see anyone like this ever again. Sure, any hooker in some galactic bar was going to have a rocking body, but the reality was that this person was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were too perfect, too privileged to be considered a regular galran soldier or even a fancy druid. Hell, they might even be-according to Lance's imagination running wild-some kind of princess or something held against her will by emperor Zarkon. He could already imagine what was going to happen should the infiltration mission continue, it's not like it was that hard to predict. He's seen how these missions all ended with the castle destroying everything in sight, ships exploding and reactors overheating till they too explode. His mind was suddenly flooded with this body- a perfect porcelain body- crushed under rocks, bloodied and bruised and on the verge of death. No one in this base was going to survive the attack, not with the amount of firepower the Castle of Lions in the sky was packing. The gust of winds outside had begun to pick up.

  
Lance stood fully up outside in the bitter cold. Maybe it was the negative 20 degrees weather outside or maybe it was the constant on and off relationship status he has been on for the last few months, but something inside lance was compelling him to do something. Something that wasn't his character or his normal common sense. He paced, anxiously walking back and forth, wandering aimlessly around his mind. He was lucky that the snow was starting to pick up, creating a frothy white slush that whipped according to wind gusts, otherwise, he definitely would have been shot and killed out there in the ice-cold snow.

  
Weighing his options, it was pretty simple to decide that he needed to get down there. If he didn't, this rare beauty would be flattened in an instance, probably burned alive and slaughtered like the rest of the base inhabitant. Lance couldn't have possibly been sure if this person was innocent or not. The risk to him wasn't that big either. Months of endless space training had turned this once skinny Cuban boy into a well-built 25-year-old with muscles bulging, abs toned, and his energy reserve boosted to over 75% from what it was when he first started the Voltron gig. Just from running missions alone, he was faster, smarter to a degree, and more muscular than he would ever be again. Lance would be fine.

  
Without thinking anymore, lance turned off his intercom with a quick zip, fastened his sniper bayard to his back and looked around his surroundings for one last time. By now he had already memorized the guard's movement patterns and had already found a way in. Looking over the overpass one last time, he made his descent down to the base, into a labyrinth of unknown mystery and horror.

* * *

Keith stepped out of the bathroom, a red satin bathrobe covering his black lingerie. Normal pj's were very uncomfortable at the moment, so a lacy bra and underwear with some see-through chiffon hanging below the bra and reaching his waist would have to do. He let the bathrobe fall off his shoulder and slipped it off his arm, tossing it onto the bed. He glanced to the corner of the bed and watch the IV stand glare back at him. He was going to have to hook himself up to it before he went to bed, God forbid the universe he calls in one of those horrid galran nurses who were probably underground banging one of the soldiers. That's all they ever do really.

  
The mirror mounted on the oak wooden dresser began to glow, a robotic feminine voice speaking through hidden speakers. The rim of the mirror was glowing a slow neon purple and the glass became glazed. Keith sighed, walking over to the furniture and sitting on an ottoman. The window next to the dresser was tightly pulled shut, the dark purple drapes hanging baggily from the rod.

**"** **_An incoming private transmission connecting with Imperial Royal Blood First Prince Lotor of the Galran Empire from Galran Naval Base 5078963 on planet Timarili."_ **

"Receiving" Keith replied between a yawn.

The mirror fizzed and in an instant, Lotor's face appeared. His long white hair was fashioned quite nicely, slickly greased back with white glossy strands sticking to his forehead. He wore a deep red silk robe with red roses sticking out of his shirt pockets, his bare purple chest just visible from behind. Soft jazz music was playing in the background and a champagne fluke was visible from his desk. The windows behind him were pitch black and white tiny stars softly glowed through the glass.

"Lotor"

" _Half breed_ " it was more of a hiss than an actual statement from Lotor. Despite the fact that they were half brothers, the First and Second Princes of the Empire, the fact that he was only half galran and half of another species known as Hu-man made him vulnerable and weak in the eyes of others in the empire: Lotor included.

  
"I take it you have something important to tell me?" Keith said, fiddling with a pill container resting on his deck. He only had to take three different pills a night, and this prescription should be ending right before he goes Black-OP with Lotor and the other three.

  
"Surprisingly yes. While your out in that wintry-wasted base of yours, how do you plan to fight off the incoming Voltron attack? I'm asking out of pure curiosity". Keith looked up having set down his last pill in the neatly arranged row on his desk. He quirked an eyebrow. "Incoming Voltron attack? Here in the middle of nowhere?" His voice showed he was making a bluff out of it but all he got back was a hum in agreement and an image of Lotor taking a sip of the fuchsia-colored bubbly that fizzed in the glass fluke.

  
"Yes, dear brother, it seems not too long ago a Blade of Marmora spy was _weeded_ out from our ranks, and while it took quite a while to _wiggle_ it out of him, he admitted to supplying information regarding your transfer and evidently your location back to that sad-sack of so-called Legendary Defenders. So now we suspect that Voltron has acted upon this piece of information and may even be in that wasted base of yours, infiltrating and all that fun as we speak."

  
"Oh, so a traitor" Keith looked down, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth. "From which rank did he come from? Just asking out of curiosity" Lotor's face turned a dark purple in anger and the delicate grip he had on the fluke turned deadly and resulted in a slowly progressing crack up the slender sides.

  
"THAT doesn't concern you, half-breed. Just try not to get killed or kidnapped in the next 36 hours." A hiss and a snap from Keith's half brother as always. Keith nodded slowly, gulping down his pills in one fell swoop. Voltron in the base? That almost made him laugh. The base was absolute **shit** yes but the fact of the matter was that it was still a base. Keith's seen all the video clips taken on the front lines of the lions and that damned floating castle. All of it was super high tech with big guns and big explosions. Everything was destroyed and nothing was ever left behind with Voltron. As if they would try infiltration now. Truly comedic.

  
"Good night Lotor," Keith said with some drowsiness in his voice. The pills were kicking in and the weight of his body was becoming real. Lotor hummed nonchalantly, clicking a button and suddenly the mirror went back to being a regular old mirror. Keith could see his reflection, his long black hair reaching his mid-back, drooping in the front and dark purple circles were lining his eyes. He brought his fingers up to his chest and lightly touched the soft flesh before giving a sigh and standing up from the dresser, tucking the ottoman neatly under the desked portion. As he stalked towards his bed, motioning for the lights to switch off, he stopped to admire the IV stand dauntingly standing next to the bed.

  
Every day they would hook him up to an IV that would drip some horrid liquid into his system. Every drip made his body hurt more than anything else in the world. The horrid pain would keep him up and awake through the surgery and even his recovery. Yes, they didn't even bother giving him the god shot that would make him sleepy. He hated IV drips. Keith made it to the foot of the bed and stood, staring at the satin black covers in the darkness. The hairs on the back of his neck were tingling in an annoying way. He scratched the short baby hairs at the base of it and waited before giving one last definite sigh before beginning to climb onto his bed, swinging one knee up onto the mattress. He rocked onto the bed right before he heard a low rumbling...

_cccccrrrrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaak!_

The moan of wooden floors made Keith freeze. Maybe it was the medication but he didn't even sense the now looming presence behind him entering his room or sneaking up behind him. he turned around quickly just in time to see a flash of blue and then the force of a body, much larger and more muscular than him knock him onto the bed and pinning him down. Like lightning, one hand grasped both his hands together tightly and the other clasped over his mouth to keep him from screaming as a body deposited themselves between his pale thighs.

Keith had been in a lot of situations but none was more up close and personal as this one was.

He struggled, grunting loudly until he heard his assailant bend down and shush him. He looked up and squinted in the darkness, his brows furrowing. Ocean blue sapphire eyes met his onyx-purple ones. his heart was pounding loudly in his throat.

**_Who the hell was this?_ **


	5. You Rescue Me

The assailant gripped Keith's pale wrists tightly. The hand over his mouth was padded, and he could feel the hard durability of armor against his cool skin. He looked around wildly, his chest rising and falling in a shallow breath. He was gasping, sputtering with surprise beneath the weight of this person, whoever they were.

His onyx-purple eyes stared deeply into the ocean blue sapphires that were eagerly looking back at him. Keith could feel his eyebrows knit together in anger as he tried his best to move away from this mystery man, his mouth covered and releasing muffled grunts.

"Hey" the body whispered softly, a male voice. "Hey-hey calm down. Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you, I just couldn't risk you screaming in surprise". The assailant gave a toothy grin which startled Keith in surprise. The person's breath filled his nostrils and immediately warning bells rang off in his mind. His nose was filled with this _husky scent_ , something mixed with hickory and oak and cinnamon. it reminded him of winding rivers and woodland brooks buried in the soft underbrush. And this scent, however pleasant and jubilant it might have been, brought about a boiling rage within Keith to the point he was gnashing his teeth in private. 

ALPHA!

Keith squirmed his best beneath the immense weight of this alpha male, his grunts and murmurs growing louder and louder. The hold on his wrists tightened as did the hold on his mouth but he didn't want to give up. The male kept shushing him to be quiet, but that just caused him to grunt louder.

"Hey! He-c'mon please stop! Stop! Hey-" The male got in front of Keith's face, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise. he stopped instantly, his grunting becoming muted and his heart beating so loudly in his throat that he couldn't even hear himself think. "Look my name is Lance. I saw you through the window-" The wide-eyed horrid gaze of Keith's eyes made Lance audibly gulp. yeah, that sounded creepy.

"Wh-what I mean is that it's going to be okay. _I'm here to rescue you_."

At the mention of a rescue, Keith relaxed his body. His breathing evened out from his shallow breaths to a deeper, more calmer one. The male-now Lance, as Keith would suppose- continued to coax him until he was calm. His breathing by now had completely evened out, and the two, Lance ontop of a frightened Keith, stayed like this for quite a while. They stared at each other in the darkness of the room, just Keith breathing through a muffled hand covering his muffled mouth.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Lance backed up from Keith's personal space and instead straddled him with padded-armored legs on either side of porcelain soft legs. As he backed up the grip on Keith's wrists and the hand-wrapped over his face began to loosen, and Keith could feel a sort of relief wash over him as he was no longer captured and pinned. It was a good time too for Lance to notice the black lingerie padded bra and underwear, and the sudden realization that he was straddling a nearly naked babe made him blush.

"You okay now...?" he asked in a hushed tone, the blush never once leaving his cheeks.

A small curt nod was his reply.

"Okay good." Lance scooted further back on the bed. "Can you tell me your name?

"Door" was his response. Lance furrowed his brows in confusion as he leaned in closer. "...Wh-what?" 

Before he could even think or ask any more about the odd response, the porcelain-like legs quickly slipped out from underneath him and in a flash, Lance landed on his butt and was sitting squatted on the black satin covers of the bed, shocked. He sputtered, knocking himself back a little in astonishment. In the blink of an eye, the beauty that he was supposedly rescuing was just inches from his face, their nose nudging closely. Those same onyx-purple eyes that were so scared yet so beautiful just seconds ago were now staring deeply into his wide-eyed sapphire ones. He backed up, air caught in his throat, and his eyes wide as he pleads for some clarity.

Lance, for all of his faults, was too distracted by the widen onyx-purple eyes, glaring inches from his face so deep into his soul, to notice the small clutched fist turning red from the tightened scrunched grip making a beeline for his ribs.

Lance noticed far too late.

The punch connected with Lance's ribs, and in an instant all of them cracked with a loud SNAP from within. His face scrunched from the pain, his mouth hanging open and his eyes leaking the smallest of tears. He could feel his throat strain as he gasped out the biggest rush of air and a hot burning was felt in his stomach. The impact caused him to fly 16 meters or so backward, flat off the bed and across the room until...

CRASH!!!

His body, head first, crashed into the large oak door of the bathroom, the big door shattering like glass as splinters shot out in all directions. Lance felt as though he had been zapped by lightning as his nerves sent shock waves through his veins and tissues as his body went limp and he slid down the heavily cracked and dented bathroom door and down to the ground. He doubled over, both hands flying to his abdomen as he threw up pure red blood, the thick liquid splattering all over loosened wood chips and dents in the carpet. His bayard had been knocked off his back and had landed itself just a few inches away from.

Keith moved slowly onto his knees tucked haphazardly behind him under his butt. He sat up straighter and looked more closely at his assailant. The crash had caused the emergency lights to flicker on, the thin stripes of pastel purple that lined the room glowed a silent hum. It wasn't the best lighting, but it was all he needed to see the alpha male and his blood spewed across the carpet. it brought a silent smile to his face.

But in all honesty, the most important thing Keith noticed, besides the sad and crippled alpha male whimpering and coughing on the ground, was the nearly destroyed but mostly split white chest plate armor that was accented with a blue-winged "V".

A PALADIN OF VOLTRON

Keith slowly slipped his hand underneath one of the eleven black satin pillows piled up on the bed. The hanging chiffon fabric that covered midriff tickled his thighs as he pulled out one of his most prized possessions: a black metaled knife just barely longer than his muscled forearm. 

The small knife that had a stripe of neon purple that ran along the handle and hilt and continued to split the pitch-black metal down the centerline, creating a rounded two-point circle in the very center but continuing on till it reached the tip. As he twisted the handle, the knife began to glow and elongated itself to almost a sphere length of a double-edged sword with a bar in the middle to hold. it was nearly as big as him, and it was one of the most prized prototypes of the galran empire:

_The Acrimation._

Carefully he slipped off the foot of the bed, his feet softly hitting the padded floor quietly. The blue paladin was still trying to figure out what happened, blood pooling out of his nostrils and tears streaking down the sides of his face. Keith sighed, walking a small stroll, swinging his hips side to side before he stopped right in front of the crippled paladin, the hunched body coughing violently. Keith quirked an eyebrow.

"I had heard about you," Keith said, looking through peering eyes at the bruised body. Another cough and sputter of breath told him that the paladin was listening. "You're a paladin, right. The blue one at that too. I congratulate you for coming this far."

A hand, shaking from immense pain, slowly reached out from the broken chest plate and made a weary attempt at grasping at the bayard. It missed the first time and got closer the second, but before it could finally grasp the hilt, Keith lifted it up with his right big toe and tossed it across the room, the weapon sliding under a nearby bookshelf. Lance tried his best to talk, but all that came out was an antagonizing grunt and more blood splatters decorating his white, black, and blue armor. A smirk was tugging at the corners of the half galran's mouth

"What's wrong paladin?" the question was mocking, and when Keith didn't get an answer, he did the only thing he knew how. He picked up the paladin, despite the loud groans and screams of agony that escaped his crippled mouth, with only his right hand and held him up high. Those same ocean sapphires peered through tear covered eyelids and down nostrils that were oozing red blood. Keith quirked his head to the left, and out of pure amusement shook him a little to get a reaction. he watched in pleasure as those same eyes widened in pain and grunts of protest escaped those bloodied lips.

"Arent you suppose to be doing something?" It came out as a whisper from Keith, a daunting and mocking whisper that had the alpha male freeze in his skin. Before the paladin could do anything, without much effort at all, Keith flung his limp body to his left and watched in satisfaction as the body flew right through the wall and the sheer force of the impact caused it to collapse in on itself, brick and whatnot spewing from the destroyed barrier, and the paladin landing with another shocking BOOM in the hallway, dust rising all above. He heard in pleasure as a scream quite deafening rose against the echoed hallway. Ah yes, the screams of someone who just broke another bone.

Keith ripped off the hanging chiffon out of pure annoyance. comfort wasn't a necessity at this point. He didn't see himself as a violent person or as someone who really took pleasure from needless bloodshed and violence. What he was into was making sure those who wronged him were punished like they were spending an eternity in hell. And at this point in time, Keith was hell-bent on making sure this paladin's death was nice, slow, and antagonizing.

Lance could feel his head throb with the pounding of thunder on a hail storm of a day. He didn't quite remember the part where he was tossed out into the hallway or the part where he was now lying in the middle of an emptied hallway, his body limply strewn across a massive crater which he was sure he had created from when he landed. He couldn't move anything and that honestly scared the living shit out of him. the only thing that was working or that he could at least feel was his right-hand which had conveniently landed right in front of his face. He peered at it through swollen eyes and a small glimmer of hope stirred within him. If he could just move it...he thought. He focused all his energy on his hand, a horrid tingling sensation shooting up his arms and racking through his ribs but Lance pushed on. He could see it, his near numb fingers starting to twitch and shake as he forced his nerves to work. he didn't even know it, but he began to smile a little. Just a little.

The glimmering hope was crushed however when his hand was literally crushed by a porcelain foot that came down with a stomp so forceful it shook the ground. All of his bones in his right hand now had been crushed. Lance didn't even hear the cry of pain escape his lips

His eyes wandered up as a small giggle was heard in the echoing hallway. However tired and weary his mind was, he forced himself to look up as he gnashed his teeth through the pain. His eyes, his ever so tired sapphire eyes locked onto the mocking onyx-purple ones. They looked back at him with hatred.

"I thought" Keith began, looking down at a defeated blue paladin, blood-washed up all over their face, "I thought you were supposed to be doing something" The massive sword was cocked closer to his neck, and Lance gulped

**"I thought you were supposed to be rescuing me"**


	6. Pleasure to Partake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith faces off against the paladins of Voltron, and nothing will get in his way of killing them off.

The hallway was wide like a castle and empty like the barren wasteland outside. Keith took the ringing silence as a moment to steel himself and to enjoy what little peace he could even enjoy in the heat of the moment. He was mostly naked, but for the small undergarments that were still clinging to the sweat based skin.

The hallway, which had been empty since Keith had even gotten into his room, was partially destroyed as crumble of stone littered the musty carpets. Hallways, architecturally, were similar not only in the base but also in ships and even floating castles throughout the empire. That was one of the few constants the superhumanly strengthened omega could enjoy with what little he had. He looked to the roof, the arches all dusty and particles small and whitish floating sheepishly down from the metallic rafters. He thought perhaps it was snow.

"You know, I had heard about you paladins, all the glory and fame; the myth surrounding the mighty" the large sword dipped dangerously low to Lance's neck. A simple prod had a single stream of blood seep from the fresh cut.

"All I heard about you guys was the same. You all are the great defenders, barely human mostly god... To finally meet you is a pleasure, don't get me wrong. I am eternally grateful-"

Lance met those violet-grey eyes glazed over with such a death glare, and for a moment he was almost felt pity for this person, whoever they were. Yes, in the mass chaos of the events he had failed to get the chic's name. That didn't' change the fact that whoever they were, the simple fixation of just knowing perhaps that he was a paladin was enough for them to become so hardened, so merciless, that they would no longer be regarded as a human. Animalistic, one could say. The hate, anguish, and loathsomeness ran deeper than the river of blood pooling out of Lance right now. A past wronged that sough to be right, he thought in a daze. 

"We were coming to meet you actually, not the other way around. In a sick way, you could say this was fate if you believe in that sort of shit and whatnot. I spent the last few days trying to burn your images and facial features into my retinas, trained for every sort of possible circumstance that would be presented. But none-" the heavily weighted blade traced along the tan neck as more blood pooled out, Lance's parted lips shaking with fear "-could compare to the fucking joyous sight you have brought me. So thank you."

Lance watched idly as the porcelain balls of the feet of this ravaged beauty rocked around in a circle slowly, antagonizing-ly crushing every tiny bone possible in his hand. The worst part was that the blue paladin couldn't even feel it. The pain was numbing, as was the loss of blood, but you know, pick and choose. 

Keith raised the blade high above his head, the once shimmering eyes turning frigid cold, and readied himself to deliver the final blow. The paladin could feel his breath hitch in his throat, his heart hammering out of control against his sternum. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to be killed, secretly knowing that he could blame no one but himself. There was no shouting 'burn in hell' to anyone but himself, because ultimately he was the reason why he was where he was, on the ground, about to die. Playing hero was a fool's game, and for all Lances faults, _for all of his faults_ , he had learned that lesson before, again and again, time and time again. Yet, here he was, about to be slain by his folly, if you will. Earth was a ways-away, a happy retirement with children and a wife was completely out of the question.

He didn't even get a chance to meet his true mate.

The defeated paladin closed his eyes, ready for the blow to end his life. he came far- further than he thought he would have when he first started the gig- and he was ready for his life, if not preventable, to end right here. He sighed...

Sorry Abuela...

The swoosh of the black blade made the air rush towards him, a sweet scent filling his nose before he flinched, expecting a harsh pain at the back of his neck. Instead, he heard the clank of metal and heat rushing towards his face as hot ironed sparks landed on his cheeks. He opened his eyes slowly, wincing once the hot iron shards landed on his dirtied cheeks and sizzled the delicate skin. His gaze wandered higher towards the pale-skinned beauty, his expression unreadable but a small smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. He could see the green bayard swishing through the air on the bright neon cord, striking relentlessly at the stranger, the one whom Lance foolishly tried to save. As if they needed his slow weak ass hauling them through the base.

"Lance!" the familiarity of the voice brought a slight warm feeling back to Lance as he looked up and was met with the freckled white face of the green paladin. He was truly glad that he could at least see his friends before you know, he died. Loud blasts from another Bayard aimed at the strengthened Omega resounded in the hollow hall. Without even looking, with a smirk on his face, that same omega blocked each blast as if it were downright comical. He made his way a couple of meters back allowing the same green paladin to land just a few feet away from Lance, heavier footsteps making their way towards his direction.

To Keith, the scene was rather touching. Before him lay the green paladin, a beta short in stature but giving him a snarl that would make an alpha slink back into the corners of the hall. They barely reached his shoulders and looked skinnier than a Galran orphan in the streets. The other, the beta yellow paladin, was a much larger, hunkier piece of meat. Strong arms yet a squishy fatty stomach pooling from underneath his chest plate armor. This one stood protectively over the fallen alpha, and if Keith wasn't already in a joking state- drugged up on medication- he would have said the two were loving mates. 

"Lance what the hell- who is this bitch?!" the green paladin yelled, taking a low protective stance as the yellow paladin stood behind them, bayard raised and aiming at the assailant's stomach. Pidge watched as the stranger couldn't help but smirk, seemingly drugged up on some substance. The air came to a standstill and the atmosphere became tense as they stood only ten meters apart, eyes locked and movements quieted.

"Pidge!" Hunk screamed in warning as the same assailant moved quicker than lightning towards the green paladin. She managed to evade them as the heavy blade crashed into the carpet. The green bayard transformed in a flash of light as it swung through the air, missing them to Pidge's dismay. She guided herself around the attacker In a full circle, firing shots from her bayard at the vulnerable areas, all deflected with such ease. Pidge steeled herself for another forward attack getting ready to wrap the aggressor around in her bayard for Hunk to fire the final shot. She lunged, air rushing past her brunette hair as she closed the distance between her and the attacker, swinging her arm in an attempt to at least land a critical hit...

To her surprise, however, the assailant had disappeared into thin air.

High above the paladins, Keith had leaped, maybe fifteen or so meters. As fast as he had rushed high into the air, he came down like a hurdling rock right on top of the green paladin. She was crushed in an instant, the knees of the omega digging into the betas back as she was pounded further into the carpet. Blood splattered from her mouth, a burning sensation rushing from her mid-back and engulfing her head as the whiplash busted her cranium into the tiled ground. A shriek escaped from her lips but was quickly silenced as she was picked up mercilessly by the back of her neck and thrown more than thirty meters across the hall, her limp body flying over the yellow and blue paladin. She landed with a hard thud on the wooled carpet, blood pooling out from her mouth and seeping against the purple background.

Lance, while he was mostly unconscious, felt his throat tightened as he watched Pidge fly through the air and land some unknown distance from him. He watched as Hunk stilled, his normal rosy skin turning pale as the hands wrapped around the massive bayard that was quivering. He watched helplessly as the omega took as shuddering step closer, knocking the futile shots from the bayard away from them. From between Hunk's legs, he could see the same hateful Omega rush towards his friend, picking him up with one hand, and running the massive black blade through his stomach. More blood, dripping from the skewered paladin, splattered across Lance's stunned face. He watched yet again as Hunk was flung as far back as Pidge, and while Lance couldn't move his body, he knew from the devasting crack of bones he had landed right on top of an unconscious Pidge.

He had just watched his friends be killed by a single person.

Keith let out an exhausted sigh, smirking devilishly as he pushed back his long hair that dared to droop in front of his face. His baby hairs clung to his forehead as the starting of a drop of sweat trickled from his hairline. He felt crazy, the adrenaline rushing through his blood like a bullet train, his veins palpitating out of control. He knew he didn't kill the two paladins, only beat them within an inch of his life. And honestly, he was okay with that

Despite popular belief, Keith wasn't a violent person. Far from it actually. When he first entered the empire as a helpless young boy abducted from who-knows-where he quickly learned that had to be heartless in order to survive. Any softness, any weakness, was snuffed out of him early on. He learned to snap necks and crack backs and dislocate hips and ribs with ease, all with the proposition that if he didn't he wouldn't be able to live past the age of ten. Lotor had made sure that he was a solid as a rock, always playing foolish and heartless pranks on his forced younger brother. He barely escaped being raped by those galran soldiers before he learned to be heartless enough to kill them. He was only seven then.

Keith calmed himself, straightening up and steadying himself as he clenched the heavy black sword. he was going to end the blue paladin life, despite having only harmed his friends. he didn't care for two betas, not really. But he did care for nosy alphas who only know how to butt into other people's businesses and to be a self-made hero when no one asked.

He took a few more daunting steps towards the wounded paladin who had been resting, slipping in and out of consciousness in the massive crater he had made. The hole in the wall stood next to him which showed him the interior of his now ruined room.

He was just a few steps away before the deed would be done. He would single-handedly destroy the paladins of Voltron and end this miserable rebellion that had plagued his father and empire for thousands of years before he was even born. He sniffed, the air suddenly turning very hot. His chest tightened, his tender breasts suddenly constricting him as he stumbled towards the wounded Lance, a hand gripping his tightly wound chest and the other barely gripping the large black sword. Damn this medicated body, Keith couldn't breathe.

And perhaps it was because he couldn't breathe that he had a hard time sensing the looming presence behind him as a large knuckle-bound hand collided furiously with the back of his head. It pushed him flat into the carpet, yet it didn't stop there. The force pushed him through the metal woven floor and through the floor below it and even the one below that. Keith continued to fall, crashing through the multiple floors of the base till he couldn't even be seen from the floor he was once standing on. He had disappeared.

Lance, delirious with the loss of blood, peered through his shut swollen eyes at the glistening white silver hair that belonged to the princess. He smiled as best he could, the ache never leaving the left side of his face brutally smashed into the floor. A warm hand caressed his shoulders, and upon looking up was met with his leader's warm heartening smile. Shiro. Lance inhaled a sharp breath, doing his best to hold in the tears and smile one last time before the world went dark. Everything would be okay now that the alpha power couple Shiro and Allura were here.

His vision faded to gray.

* * *

The hiss of a boiler woke Keith from his mid faint. He sighed, squeezing his eyelids shut before peering through his eyelids to his surroundings. Large tank-like boilers were on either side of his head, steady cracks creeping up the rusted sides with pink-hued steams escaping the small slits. Keith lolled his head from side to side desperately trying to shake the unwanted drowsiness that was tempted at the back of his head. He felt some wetness from the base of his neck that slid down his shoulders. Pale fingers softly glided across the smooth skin, raising the red-stained appendages to get some better light. The sight of a crimson liquid had Keith rolling his eyes.

Blood.

Keith sat up, popping his dislocated shoulder back into place and rolling out of the massive crater he had made once he had landed. His mind was foggy but his aspirations were clear.

He aspired to kill off the members of Voltron and to not go on his little family outing with his brother. That was just animalistic. His nose, while seeping blood from his nostrils, crinkled at the smell of putrid altean blood. The inferior race had been wiped out more than 10,000 years ago by his father, the grand Emperor Zarkon however intel suggested that the flying Altean castle was piloted by the pink paladin Princess Allura. The fall of the traitorous King Alfor marked the true beginnings of the new Galran Empire, and ever since that fated day the empire has been expanding rapidly into the cosmos. And as his two twin sons, close in age, Keith and Lotor held a responsibility to the empire to conquer, destroy and bring fear to all who dare question Zarkon's words and motives.

That was the shit Keith was in at least.

He sat up, a loud groan escaping him as he shook the grogginess from his mind. His sword had landed somewhere by the large boiler adjacent to him. His left ankle was bashed in just below some fallen rock and his lingerie, which up till now was holding up fine, was ripped and tattered, leaving Keith basically naked. He was okay with being naked, just anyone who dared to lay eyes on him would have their eyes gouged out and their head twisted on backward.

He looked up towards the massive hole in the ceiling and was barely able to see two standing bodies looking down on him from the rim. A man and woman, both alphas. The woman was altean which was apparent because of her strength, and the man was quite mysterious, however, his alpha-like scent had a dark familiarity to Keith.

No matter really. Keith was going to kill both of them anyway, and end this pointless charade.


	7. All the Charades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle at Crevatan base is decided, and both sides reel from the effects.

Allura dropped first into the hole, without even thinking about it.

She hadn't' really thought much about what she was doing until she was about 3 floors deep and had suddenly become very aware of what was about to go down. Whoever they were down there, prancing around in some slutty lingerie, they had beaten three of Voltron's Paladins within an inch of their lives, and she as both an alpha and a leader, would not stand for it. Lance couldn't say much, but she was able to get just the gist of what was going on. Whoever they were down there, they worked for Zarkon and they are more than just some druid or soldier. No, they were **special**.

When Allura finally landed she was met with a sight that was quite surprising. A bruised and bloody stranger using the boiler, which must have been some 200 degrees, as a wall to stand against. Blood was slick on their moist black hair that hung low over their eyes. That daunting glare just below the eyelids made her shiver as if Zarkon himself were staring down into her soul with his cold beady eyes. Whoever they were, she had just pissed them off.

Without so much as slight hesitation, the stranger ripped a pipe, about a meter and a half in length, from the wall and twirled it in their hands. The blood that slid down the center of their face and blanketed the left half of his head did nothing to soothe the atmosphere. Rather, Allura found herself subconsciously lowering her stance with her bayard armed and ready. They stood, staring for a while at each other as the boilers sang an unpleasant melody of hiss and shrieks, both of their breaths hitched in their throats.

Allura rushed him, her whip curling all the way around in a semicircle before landing directly where Keith once stood. He had leaped over it with ease, rushing towards Allura with the pipe in hand. The whip curled around with another flick like a snakes tongue and wrapped itself around his thin ankle. With the strength of an Altean, Allura swung Keith around like a club and smashed him against the wall, a hiss erupting from his lips.

He slid down, wearily standing on his feet. Damn the medication, the dizziness did nothing but distract him. He barely evaded the next two attacks from the princess, dodging with a scrape or scratch here and there. The rushing of the whip towards his head had him ducking just before the chord could snap, the loud sound of the crack echoing throughout the hollowed boiler room. Allura rushed him again, tackling him down to the ground. A fierce kick from Keith had her flying back before and oncoming headbutt, one fully powered by a rushing whiplash, had the princess stumbling back and crashing against a much smaller boiler that dug into her hip, the splatter of altean blood littering the ground. Allura shook the pain from her memory as she sidestepped the flying dropkick that landed right on top of the said boiler. It exploded with a hiss of steam and the flying of metal parts. She escaped to a safe distance underneath the smoke.

Keith hated a lot of things: his empire, his family, his brother, his _body_. But none could truly compare to how he hated losing. Losing meant you weren't strong enough to win, and if you lost you were destined to lose again, or at least, that was what he was taught. Losing also meant that you were at the mercy of the victor, and if that victor wasn't some nice person, you would most likely end up being tortured or raped. Mostly raped.

The chemical steam wafted throughout the room, cloaking everything in a whitish haze. Keith ripped out the shard of metal that had landed on his chest, watching as the blood continued to trickle down his mostly naked body. It hurt like hell, but it wasn't deep enough to kill him. Allura attacked him again, but this time, he was done running. He was done evading.

He was done losing.

He caught the flying punch with his hand, twisting his body so that his shoulder touched Allura's chest plate. With a brutal crack, he dislodged the woman's shoulder, wrapping his arm around her neck to swing his body up and around so that he was sitting on top of her shoulder. He wove his fist together before raising them above his head and bringing them down with a devastating crack. He continued, ignoring the princess padded nails digging into his flesh skin and her wailing cries of pain and brutality. The redness would all be worth it if he could kill her right where she stood. When she finally collapsed, the blood leaking from her broken skull, Keith finally stood up, his hands dripping with the vital crimson fluid. He watched the princesses arms twitch as she tried to stand, her fingers scraping against the boiler room floor.

Keith grabbed the pipe, walking over to the defeated Allura with a look some would say resembled a psychopath. His hair was whipped in all sorts of crazy directions, and he had lost more blood than he cared to regain. Now, the dizziness that was sulking in the back of his mind was probably not from the medication (though a small portion could be) but from the sheer amount of lost blood. One could look around and see the littered pools of red, just waiting to be licked up by a dog.

He was finally standing over her, pipe raised and ready to end the now struggling paladins life when a hand, glowing an energetic purple, clasped around his neck and pushed him back into the wall, creating an even larger crater that fractured up the sides of the brick woven wall. Keith felt a violent crack in his shoulders and a burning sensation in his throat as blood, maybe about a pint or so, gushed out of his mouth and dribbled down his chest. He felt faint, as he slid down the wall until he was sitting on the ground, butt naked. The pounding headache resounded like drums in his hollow head as he closed his eyes for just a few seconds, desperate to catch a break.

The smell of an angry alpha wafted through the room, and it had Keith scrunching his nose. Whenever alphas became angry, their normal scent became very bitter and unpleasant to smell, like pure black licorice mixed with rotting metals. It was in stark contrast to their usual woodland smelling scent that often soothed and calmed an omega in distress. That is if you were a weaker piece of _shit_ , unlike Keith.

Even as he was barely able to stay conscious, the scent of this alpha had him exploring more of the deep dark depths of his mind that he had long forgotten he even had. Suddenly, images of the warm melting mellow sunset just above the dune rocks, rustic and dusty yet sharp and strong, that stood out against the burning red sand swirled in his head creating an even bigger headache than before. The sky was painted with all the colors of amethyst as the sun had set and stars, dancing like fairies, fell through the sky and swirled up some winds, rushing across the desert plain. A voice, low yet kind in words, whispered to Keith telling stories of magic and misfits that had him feeling more relaxed than he had in his entire life full of hardship. His young mind raced with ideas of and dreams of becoming an astronaut and exploring space. As a young boy, he would babble on and on of rangers in space and galactic princesses and emperors ruling over the entire cosmos!

Someone, _anyone_ , should have come down and shot the kid dead before he knew what hit him.

Without even realizing it, Keith became enraged at the scent, angry at this alpha who he didn't know. Thoughts of abandonment, betrayal, and loneliness surged throughout his mind. He felt a sudden sense of strength that washed over him, pushing the thought of sleep and fainting back further into his mind. It was adrenaline, and it was just what Keith needed to kill this mysterious alpha male that stood before him.

Shiro, the Black Paladin, was that said alpha.

When Allura had rushed into the hole without even telling him, he became panicked. On one hand, he had a responsibility to fight alongside his mate of two years and to protect her at any cost, but on the other hand, he was the leader of Voltron and he could not abandon the three wounded paladins that desperately clung to their lives.

"Coran! We have an emergency! Lance, Pidge and Hunk are all down and beaten pretty badly. We need an immediate medical extraction now!" If it wasn't for his normal steadiness in his voice, Shiro would have come across as a nervous wreck, which he was. He just didn't show it.

"Who could've beaten the three amigos so badly in such a short amount of time?!" Coran asked through the intercoms, the flurry of alarms and buttons sounding off in the background. Shiro couldn't explain, but a few moments later with the information gathered, two castle drones levitated down the hallway and floated over the wounded three. After thanking Coran for his assistance, Shiro took a shuddering breath himself before taking the plunge down below, leaving his comrades lives in Coran's capable hands.

Halfway down, however, his nostrils were filled with the unmistakable smell of blood. _ **Allura's blood**_. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he heard loud crashing noises and he scented a smell quite pungent, half from his wounded mate and the other half from an omega, just below him. When he finally landed, he was met with a sight he would never forget: his beautiful Allura laying unconscious on the ground and a butt-naked porcelain-skinned omega with jet black hair standing over her, about to deliver the final blow with a crooked pipe. Instincts kicked in, and before you know it he had the poor omega by the throat and had him flying back into a large brick wall, creating a crater so massive it only dared to show off his alpha strength.

Keith and Shiro didn't share in any gazes, didn't allow the air to become stiff with tension. The scent of blood hung thick like drapes, and neither was the type to let that stop the inevitable blood-shedding. All sense of combat, all sense of purpose escaped the two and before anything could interrupt them, instinct took over.

The two lunged at each other, full force, arms raised, and attacks flying.

Consequently, their attacks both landed, directly in the face of the other which had the two stumbling back. Keith had now just realized that the black paladin, with his two-toned hair and tuft of a white bang, didn't have a bayard and was instead using a robotic arm. A _galran_ robotic arm at that. The rage could not be quelled, the fact that he was either fighting against a thief or a traitor had him sending a flying kick to their ribs. It was caught with ease, and Shiro took the opportunity to brace him in a hold, twisting his arms into an uncomfortable position. Keith screamed, the strength of the alpha suddenly becoming apparent to him as he could feel the bones in his arms twist and crack slightly from the pressure. He would not go down easy like the rest.

A punch to the gut had Keith's right ribs cracking from the collision, with anther scream erupting from his bloodied chapped lips. Shiro forced him to the ground, and if he was any more confident in himself, he would have called the fight over at that. However, the omega twisted around him, rolling him to the side and throwing him against the hard concrete of the boiler room floor. They stayed connected, however, and like two little schoolboys roughhousing in the mud, the two struggled for a while before Shiro came out as dominant.

Before the alpha dominated the omega, as always.

Shiro held Keith's broken wrists above his head, seeming to ignore the "boobs" that hung free and loose without any clothing at all that squished against his white (now stained red) armored chestplate. Shiro had planted him down just like that blue paladin had, with Keith no more free to move than a prisoner. Keith hissed, baring his fangs at the alpha and struggling beneath the massive hold. At last, it was not meant to be, as Shiro continued to bore down on him with his mighty strength. The two stood staring, gridlock with sight at each other. Neither dared to look away in case they missed anything, _anything_ at all.

"Who the hell are you?!" Shiro growled, his teeth baring such pearly white canines that any other omega would have shuddered at the sight. Luckily for Keith, he wasn't any other omega. He bore his own canines, snarling right back at the prick alpha.

"I could ask you the same shitty question, you _traitor_!"

"I don't know what you're talking about! I've never been loyal to this _despicable_ , _disgusting_ empire" Shiro snapped back, emphasizing his insults to this clearly loyal galran soldier. The snarl on his lips became more fierce as his unhinged anger continued to rise within him. It may have been the instinctual primal rage, for no other omega Shiro has ever met dared to anger him and not submit when he was clearly dominant like this one had. First, this omega beats his mate within an inch of their life, and then they **dare** to call him a traitor. What an asshole they were.

"Don't give me your worthless shits! Your arm has the stench of the galra, and that technology surrounds here in this very room. You're nothing but a backstabbing piece of shit, you and your disgusting fucks!" Shiro roared back, their faces just inches apart. Drool leaked from the corner of his mouth, thoughts of biting the head off this dirty-mouthed omega flooding his mind. The lack of answers, the beating of his team, _the beating of his mate_ , was enough to drive him to murder.

"Who the fuck are you?! Answer me!"

And Keith would have roared right back if it wasn't for a single laser beam that struck the hunched paladin directly in the back. They howled with pain, the grip on his wrists loosening up just a smidge. It provided Keith with a brief opportunity, which he seized upon at the first sign. With a punch to the face and a kick to the stomach, the alpha was soaring backward and he landed with a thud upon the ground. Mustering all the strength he could, Keith climbed to his feet, stumbling a few times forward and backward. He was naked, cold, smeared in blood, and heavily drugged up. 

He fell forward, fully prepared to land face-first into the ground, but was caught up against a hardened chest plate. A smell, one synonymous with crisp winter woods and frozen ponds filled the omega's nose, as he struggled to stay awake. A large warm cloak was draped over his naked body, the warm fur soothing his slightly frostbitten parts. It made him sigh subconsciously, and for once he was grateful someone was holding onto him. He looked up through his swollen eyelid, his vision blurred, but was met with the warm smiling face of his general.

General Lorkane

"Second Prince Keith, my _liege_ , are you harmed?" Lorkane asked, his eyebrows creasing with worry as he tugged the injured prince closer in his large muscular arms. "I and the First Prince's other Generals have all come in search of you, under the presumption that the base will be infiltrated and attacked-" The general gaze lifted up to the struggling black paladin, writhing on the floor with pain, a snarl enveloping on his lips"-by the paladins of Voltron. Your body my Liege..."

"Get off" Keith snarled, pushing his weight off of the general. The alpha, about the same age as Keith, was taller in stature and much more muscular than he would have liked. He was covered in thick purple fur and wore the same galran battle suit like all the other generals in the empire, only he had a long cape. He was also clingy, with his slicked-to-the-side dark hair and way to easy to please attitude about him.

Through the door burst Lotor's generals, Generals Zetherid, Axca, Ezor and Narti. Before Keith could even get a word in, Lorkane was ushering him out of the door as Zethrid, the massive piece of meat, rushed towards the black paladin and knocked him unconscious. A few more pounds and cracks of bone had her satisfied, turning back to the small group.

"Second Prince Keith" Zethrid spoke, confidence radiating from her voice. "First Prince Lotor requests your presence aboard his battleship". The smile that curled from her lips had Keith mini-gagging in his mouth. Zethrid was also an alpha and a hungry one at that. "We have a small cruiser waiting for you outside the base" It was Axca this time, a fellow omega like Keith. "Please, Second Prince, this way. It is for your own safety"

Keith hated leaving the base the way it was because he knew full well that if he could have finished off all the members of Voltron, a lot in the future could be avoided. The three upstairs by now had to be dead, and the two down here looked like minced ham. At least he could take comfort in the fact that maybe, just maybe, he had postponed the upcoming mission by a month or two.

A loud bang could be heard from outside the triple-layered borders of the base, the cause a shot blast from a massive ship. The floor rocked and the walls seemingly wobbled underneath the massive shock waves. Sound like screeching metal resounded throughout the empty hallways calling every soldier in the base to alert.

Lorkane ushered him out of the boiler room and up the stairs in a hurry, shouting through his intercoms for someone to tell him the situation outside. The limping, stuttering of steps and the clenching of the ribs could not be seen from under the massive cloak, which Keith was partially thankful for. Though he knew deep down it was Lorkane's all along, another bid at having this general's scent plastered onto him. A long hot shower was in order as soon as he got aboard his half-brother's ship.

The small group made their way through the hallways, winding around galran soldiers and druid rushing each and every way. The lot of them looked disorganized and were pleading for the Second Prince to give them orders. Keith didn't feel the need to, because to be honest, unless they were close to the First and Second princes, they were not getting out of the base alive.

"You" Keith stopped a galran soldier walking past, the guy stopping momentarily before descending into a deep bow before the galran prince. "What of the members of Voltron on Imperial base level 16? Do we have visual contact on them?" The soldier, meek in stature and in the volume of words, muttered a no and that near the prince's room, those three paladins had disappeared. Keith hissed a curse under his breath, licking the bloodstain at the corner of his chapped lips. Lorkane, the ever-annoying, dismissed the galran soldier with a wave of an annoyed hand and resumed to pester Keith to leave now, while the base was still intact and it was safe to do so.

Another loud blast had everyone in the hallway reeling, fighting with gravity to regain their balance as the hallway tilted to the right of itself. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Lorkane thundered, a robotic drone soldier some meters away replying with 'The Altean Castle of Voltron'.

Another curse under Keith's breath as he broke out into a light jog, him and the generals making their way to the docking bay. The doors hissed open to the dock as the guiding lights flickered on and off. Sure enough, there was the First Prince's personally royal cruiser with its slick design and purple glowing hues arranged in robotic stripes up the sides. If the base wasn't falling directly onto their heads, perhaps Keith could have stopped for a while and admired the fine craftsmanship. They boarded, hurrying to close the door as heavier pieces of rocks began to fall from the ceiling. The cruiser took off, the doors of the base hissing open and allowing the small aircraft to soar through the snow-whipped planes of Crevatan before ascending into the sky and disappearing into the clouds.

Keith sighed, turning to face the daunting figure that stood directly behind him, having calmed down from the initial rush of adrenaline from before he had boarded. Sure enough, there stood the First Prince Lotor, arms crossed and a hideous snarl lacing his lips.

"Welcome aboard, you disgusting fucking half-breed"

* * *

Coran was a loyal altean for as long as he could remember. The empire was always fruitful and abundant with riches and overflowing with immense intergalactic power. As a young man, he actually enjoyed fighting alongside his King Alfor against mercenaries and armies that threatened the welfare and peace of Altea, his wonderous home. For all his dreams and hopes, Coran had imagined the empire lasting forever, like an ocean stretching on for miles and miles into the horizon. 

That fated day when he lost his family, home, and King, however, made him understand what a fool he really was for even considering such a possibility.

How it came to this, him teleporting the present heroes of Voltron onto the ship as the castle drones rushed all five of the severely injured paladins to the medical bay for healing pod treatments, he would never understand. He held onto the levitating gurney transporting Allura to one of the healing pods, his rough calloused hands clinging onto her bloody frail ones. He had imagined the future of Altea to be so different.

So different.

Trusting the paladins to the castle drones and the healing pods, Coran returned by his lonesome self to the control room, the red signs of alerts and warnings illuminating the room with a dangerous red haze. The man was quiet as he dropped the shield of the castle, stopped firing the laser cannons, and instead prepared the teleduv to warp them out of the hot scene before the castle. Lotor's armies, ships of all kind, appeared only eight minutes ago and began a firing barrage on the castle. Now that the paladins were safely secured aboard the castle, defenses could be dropped and they could leave this miserable planet forever.

As the Castle of Lions entered the wormhole, Coran took a moment to look back at the base one last time, a single tear sliding down his face. This mission was supposed to end much differently. he would have all of his paladins back aboard the ship, his Allura, his princess, greeting him as she came back to the control room. The two would go over the data with Shiro, and the three amigos would crack jokes and laugh in the background like they normally would. No one would be in the medical bay and they wouldn't be surrounded by that dick of Prince's ships. He watched silently as the base blew up, the wall crumbling and hot embers of fire singed into the snow before the scene became blurred and warped as the Castle entered the wormhole.

The Castle of Lions had disappeared as had Lotor's ships, seeming not wanting to pursue the Altean warship as they had done in the past. They had what they came for, and the base for all its uses was worthless now that it had infiltrated and humiliated before the empire. All the charades that were being pulled had come to an end, and there will be no tolerance for keeping up the act.

For keeping up all the charades.

The warships continued to fire on the Creavatan base, killing any unlucky inhabitant who were trapped inside, which consequently, was everyone because no escape pods were allowed to leave the explosion. The druids inside the base were fine because they were hard to 'manufacture' and easy to use effectively, so they were given a chance to teleport out of the base. The base exploded, yes, and the entire fleet of Lotor's ships let their comrades die in the explosion before worm holing away and leaving the desolate planet.

The snowy wasteland of Crevatan whipped around the fiery explosion, covering the dead bodies and broken base in a blanket of snow. It disappeared within three Vargas, and no one would know it was even there.

**Its existence was erased from the base registry.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a bit of fun writing this chapter and describing the battle scenes and outcome. We introduced some new characters and got to meet some new people, so let's hope that this story doesn't take so long to write!!


	8. By Blood, By Bonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone reels from the base attack. Unlikely pairs, whether forced together or voluntarily met, begin to talk as plans unknown to everyone begin to move into motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, we take a look a the relationships conflicting both within the empire and Voltron. Perhaps the bloodthirsty Galrans and the prideful Paladins are not so different after all.

_For as long as he could remember, they have always hated each other._

_They were forced into this family-like situation, never really knowing who was pulling the strings behind the whole act. One moment they didn't know the other existed in this infinite universe, and the next they were forced to lovingly call each other "brother". Two sons of an ever-living emperor who has survived 10,000 years of continuous conquest and prosperity._

_One son, forged by blood._

_The other, forged by bonds._

_The other was older than he, just by a smidge-of-a- few-months, yet he was forced to be called the younger, Second Prince of the empire, while the other was praised as the oldest- glorified even. And as the oldest, the other was given everything first while he was left with the dirt. The other was praised for being a full-blooded galran while he was left with only being a half galran bastard. The other was given lavish toys and was spoiled raw with whatever he wanted while he was given the seconds- the scrap- and never thought of again._

_And his position in society as an **omega** did not do him any favors either._

_He could remember faintly a time when he was young, maybe twelve or so, he had went to spar with some of Zarkon's personal generals in order to prove himself worthy of being called 'his son'. He had to get better, he had to continue growing in strength if he hoped to not only survive the empire's brutality but to thrive amongst these beasts that he had been forced to live with. The other, cocky in his own right, challenged him to a duel amidst his training, and he was not given the option nor opportunity to say no. Instead, the two fought, and of course, he had to lose in order to please the other, regardless of his apparent strength and clear victory. He will always and forever be thought of as a stupid, slow, and worthless omega, unfit for anything but carrying pups and submitting to the alphas._

_Regardless of these transgressions, he was always assured that he was "loved" by his father. He was "loved" by all those around him and that he was "loved" by his empire. He knew that was bullshit as he has had several assassination attempts on his life, and every time he killed the assailants without fail. Whatever "love" they tried to sell him, whatever "love" they wanted him to believe in, he knew that it didn't exist. That it was nothing but a figment of the imagination to them._

_Lotor would succeed him and become the next Emperor after the mission. And he would be nothing._ _Nothing but a wasted omega left to the hungry and desolate alphas of the empire._

Keith awoke with a jolt, his eyes fluttering like a butterfly before his vision finally cleared and focused in on the bedroom ceiling. The intricate woven designs of the beautiful war scene painted on the ceiling showed the great battle of Zarkon against the rebellious Altean empire. It showed the Emperor radiating in his shining armor with his generals surrounding him, a halo of pure gold encasing him from all sides. The pure sunbeams of silver pierced the artist's interpretation of the Altean Castle at the top of the piece and had King Alfor- the grand king of Altea- dead at Zarkon's feet, a pool of liquid gold blood surrounding them.

The second Prince was lying in a large king-sized bed, a ventilator strapped to his face and an IV and blood packet hooked up to his right arm, the tubes standing out against the Fuschia colored bed sheets. The large mountain of pillows propped him up slightly which he was secretly thankful for; the angle allowed him to breathe better. He was wrapped in bandaids, which tightly contoured his side, arms, and legs. He was dressed in a simple galran hospital gown covered by a robe and had been tucked in neatly under the large fluffy covers. Quite lovingly at that. 

Keith lolled his eyes to the right, taking note of a busy Lorkane who was making some tea at the edge of the room. The expanse of the large bedroom was decorated like a royal bedroom, the furniture, drapes, and the carpets all colored a deep red with royal intricate designs laced with gold around the trimmings. He could faintly hear the loud blasts coming from the ship and watched the dizzying whooshing swirl of the wormhole from outside, the mixture of green and blue colored strokes of cosmic dust painting a beautiful scene from the window. The sight itself made him sick. Without a doubt, he was indeed on the _Honervarius_ , Lotor's royal battleship.

"Second Prince, my liege" Lorkane began, startling Keith from his half faint daze. The omega wearily looked over to his overly energetic alpha general who was standing eagerly by his bedside. He could barely stand to look at the general's pearly white teeth as he smiled wolfishly at him.

"My liege, thank Zarkon thou is okay! You were bloodied and bruised, assaulted by those _vile_ paladins and that _disgusting_ altean witch! Had we just arrived earlier on we could have killed them for their heretic acts, and we would have, I can assure you, if not for Castle of Lion's own assault on the base and the ship. As soon as we boarded, you were rushed to this room and worked on tirelessly by the wonderous Dr.Urg, who I have already given your thanks and appreciation to. There is no need to worry, we are heading straight back to the heart of the empire! No more of this nonsense with Voltron and such, not until you are 100% back on your feet and ready to go! Now, my dearest radiant liege, would you like some hot Piccarion fruit tea? I have made quite the batch that is piping hot and ready to-"

"N-no Lorkane" Keith stumbled over his words, squeezing his eyelids shut to quell the incoming nausea. "Just...leave. Please." The constant babble of this lunatic had him sighing both mentally and physically. Trying to understand a word he was saying was not worth the onslaught of headaches and migraines that was sure to come.

"Understood, my liege! I shall wait just behind the door-"

"N-no. Like...actually go and be useful on the command deck" Keith muttered through gritted teeth, the croaking of his voice rasping against his throat. Forget trying to understand him, just trying to communicate back and forth with him was a nightmare.

"Understood, my liege. Please call if you are in any sort of pain. To see you in agony..."

"I got it" Keith muttered, turning to his side slowly and holding up a hand to silence Lorkane. He stifled a hiss from his lips as a jolt of pain raced up the tear on his side. Through cracked eyelids, he watched Lorkane leave the room and walk out into the hallway, taking a left and heading straight to the Command Bridge housing the control deck. The pain in his chest continued to rise as he tried to settle back into the soft sheets of the bed. If there was one thing Lotor was good at, it was designing and furnishing a comfortable room. No one could have noticed it at first, however, Lotor and Keith were brothers, so naturally, he noticed it as soon as he opened his eyes and breathed in the air with his injured lungs. 

This was, in fact, Lotor's room.

Everything, right down to the placement of the chairs, was constructed in such a way that it balanced the suave of the room with the level of comfort that was to be expected for the Prince. The rugs, the walls, and hell, even the ceiling was designed for royalty with intricate designs woven by skilled masters of the art. The bed itself reeked of Lotor and his all his devious 'misadventures' which caused Keith to gag just a little.

He sat up, breathing sharply through his nose, finding it increasingly necessary to put as much distance between him and the 'sullied' bedsheets as possible. He had a tear racing up the left side of his body and his legs were numb from hours of disuse, but regardless, he pushed past the stinging pain ripping through his body and chose to swing both legs over the side of the bed. He stood, allowing the thin hospital gown and satin robe to fall past his knees and hang limply around his mid-calf.

Next to the bed hung a small wall mirror framed with an intricated design resembling that of ancient Galran architecture. Keith turned to face the decoration and for the first time since the base, he took a good long look at himself. The dark bags underneath his eyes, the purplish bruised lips, and the tussle of long black hair pooling around his shoulders all pointed to the conclusion that he needed to get out of the Royal Family business. He took a shaking hand and lightly placed it over his raised chest, listening softly to the pitter-patter of his calm yet anxious heartbeat. The squishy flesh of his 'modified' chest caused him some sorrow as he remembered the painful surgery, squeezing his eyes closed in frustration.

_Why was Voltron at that base_? He questioned angrily, his brows furrowing. The sudden memory of Blue Paladin lying on top of him, that cheeky grin and sapphire blue eyes staring desperately into his soul. He shuddered, pulling his robe closed to secure himself, clutching his hands over his heart protectively.

He turned away from the mirror, unhooking the blood transfusion and IV from his arm, and with a huff, stumbled his way to the cluster of couches near the window. He propped himself up against a bundle of billows and swung his legs up onto the furniture, taking to examining the room and ship once more. The enormous warship owned by the First Prince, maiden named the _Honervarius_ , was a gift from the Emperor himself on his 20th birthday when he set out to finally conquer his own territories outside of the empire. To set out into the unknown with a ship made of trillions of tons of precious metals, wired with the latest type of technology the empire had to offer and equipped with an engine rivaling that of Zarkons own mastership- the Zarkonias- wandering deep within the expanse of the empire was an adventure all in of itself. It was truly a beast to behold.

The doors whooshed opened suddenly with a gust of wind billowing past the couches. Keith glanced towards the door through half lids, grimacing as the familiar long white hair swished back and forth and eventually settled in a chair across from him. "You alive half breed?" Lotor snarled, his lips creasing into a thin line. A single strand of hair fell into his face, his own low sigh pushing the hair string to the side with a single huff.

"I'm fine I suppose-" Keith replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "I should have complimented you on your ingenious plan. I'm a little disappointed though... If you tried any harder you could've blown up more of the base-"

"Little ungrateful piece of shit" Lotor growled under his breath, turning his gaze to the swirl of astronomical stars and dust outside the window. He slumped down in the velvet chair opposite that of the couch Keith was laying on, kicking his boots up onto the centerpiece table and pushed a vase with his toe till it knocked onto its side.

"Where are we headed?" Keith whispered harshly, creasing his eyebrows in mild frustration as he cleared his aching throat under his breath. Lotor groaned softly, his eyes turning downcast and a smirk forming at the corners of his lips. "Back to the Zarkonias, our dear fathers mothership some galaxies away. The trip there shouldn't be too long, maybe four or five Vargas. Enough time to get your sorry ass looking a bit more presentable instead of looking a bit more like shit". Keith leaned backed and heaved a sigh, his head sinking deeper into the large mountain of pillows. Another wave of nausea was hitting him at the moment and he could barely keep focus. He almost missed Lotors daring whisper of "I suppose _you_ owe me a thank you". Keith looked at him with an unimpressed glare. 

"Hrmph. For what?" 

The First Prince quirked an eyebrow at him, a sarcastic grin forming on his face. Keith turned slightly, and for the first time, met Lotors own purplish-yellow beady eyes with his own greyish cold ones. He paused, allowing for the right words to form on his tongue before he said something that would whip the First Prince into an insulting frenzy of harsh words. "Maybe...thank you for your instinctive intuition. Lorkane told me all about your decision to head to Crevatan... back to the base where I was. He even told me on the way here that you were even a little _concerned_ for my safety. That was sweet of you."

The First Prince's left eye twitched suddenly, caught by surprise by the sentimental words that were spewed from his forced half-brother's mouth. Lotor didn't want to admit it, evident by his lack of response and his invasiveness towards eye contact, but he did, in fact, act purely upon his instinct to head back to Crevatan and to make sure that everything was in order and that Keith was safely secured. The reports, according to Axca at the time, didn't add up-reports of Voltron flying around sector 12-13 of the peculiar Lymportia galaxy and then immediately having reports of a mysterious looking unidentifiable altean ship soaring through the spiral Ulvalia galaxy. The same galaxy that the planet base Crevatan was in and, evidently, the same sectors as well. Lotor hated to act upon instinct (he wasn't an instinctual person, by far) but he had to shake this uneasy feeling that things were not all in order at the base and a plot was developing beneath his carefully trained nose. God forbid something happened to Keith, then Zarkon would have an irrational fit over an insignificant halfbreed like him and only mourn for eons after (what a nuisance that would be). It didn't help that a Varga later after Axca's reports, Zethrid burst through the door of the command deck with a limp galran soldier being dragged behind her, claws sharply wrapped around his crushed windpipe and claiming he was a dirty sewer rat who divulged some top-secret empirical information to the rebellious Blades of Marmora. Suddenly everything was coming together and Voltron's plans for the base were finally surfacing. Truly, just what he needed.

"I have no idea what you are talking about" Lotor grumbled, his nose scrunching in disgust as he crossed his legs. He wanted to tease Keith a bit more, but instead, he ended up hearing more than he wanted to. Silence hung thick in the air, broken only by Keith's chuckle. As the First Prince peered over to the wounded omega on the couch, he was taken aback by the small curing smirk lining crusted bloodied lips. "We're really going to see father then. In four Vargas?" he chuckled again with amusement in his voice.

Lotor met his gaze, his face stoic as he replayed the last audience he had with his father, the Ever-living, Ever-eternal, Ever-dominant Emperor of the Great and Glorious Galran Empire. He sniffed, shuddering.

"Yes, perhaps we are"

* * *

_For as long as he could remember, he had loved Allura._

_From the moment she stepped out of the cryo pods- long white hair flowing gracefully behind her baby blue dress, her rich caramel skin so soft and her lips lush with youth- he had fallen madly in love with her. Eyes, so jeweled like sapphires and her voice-Oh her sweet voice!- so creamy and smooth like molten honey spewing from a beautiful vase. And after years of being in space together, from that meeting and then on, she became the only person he had ever wanted and the only girl he could ever imagine loving._

_They had become acquainted and quickly became friends. Wandering around the castle aimlessly for hours, Allura giving the best of tours of wondrous Altean technology his tiny earthling brain could barely comprehend. They flirted, or at least, he thought they were flirting. They were laughing and giggling through gardens and shipment holds behind large crates of ancient supplies, and for a moment, just a moment, he was back to being a fourteen-year-old kid experiencing his first love. Experiencing being together with someone who was like-minded like him and who he could laugh with for hours._

_Experiencing True Bliss._

_Their times together was like basking in the sun, warm and mellow yet soft and relaxing. He was free to be himself in her presence, in her radiance, in her **beauty**. Together, he was totally unaware of time or space, and could just go on for what felt like an eternity. Being a paladin wasn't so bad, he thought, as long as he could be with her. Saving the universe wasn't so bad, he thought, as long as he could just sit next to her and talk in the evenings. Even better, becoming a hero that would be worshipped like a god throughout the galaxy wouldn't be so bad, he thought, as long as he could bask in the endless glory with her._

_But those feelings -however sweet and innocent they might have been- were fleeting, to say the least, and like an autumn breeze, they were gone with the coming of the cool winter._

_For Allura- with a voice like honey and skin rich like caramel- her stong golden heart could only rest safely with one, unlike him. With one who could, without fail, be by her side, be her cave, be her treasure chest of abundant riches and laughter. And while he thought he could be that- be that and everything more- he was unqualified without a doubt._ _For Allura, her heart did not belong to him, but to another, more superior, alpha male._

_To Shiro._

_And slowly, the changes began, the two hearts of the strong alphas intertwining slowly and melding till they beat as one. And slowly, he was pushed away. Away from the glinting of the warm sun, the rich caramel, the honey voice, and into the cold dark shadows that were the loneliest. He was no longer a fourteen year old, living in the time of his life blissfully, experiencing new love. He was brought back to being a 25-year-old having about 8 years on him of being a paladin since his 'abduction' into space, now with the sudden realization of his responsibilities and with the weight of the entire universe upon his shoulders._

_And for Lance, nothing could be worse than watching his Allura love on without him, not even the gruesome depths of **Hell**._

With a sudden jolt of awareness, Lance awoke from his coma-like sleep, like the dead rising. He blinked rapidly and began inhaling sharp breaths and with quite some panic. Before he could register his surroundings, the glass pane of the healing pod slid wide open and with a whoosh, a gust of wind breathed upon his cold face. His nervous system- to his unfortunate dismay- was still quite _loopy_. One moment, he was trying to remember how to breathe, and the next he was face down on the cold hard floor of the infirmary, sprawled out like a limp starfish. He scrunched his nose tightly, sniffling with pain as he tried to reconcile his thoughts.

With some difficulty, Lance rolled onto his back and took to staring at the LED lights above him, waiting patiently for everything came back to him. In one moment, he was on top of that drop-dead gorgeous omega with the long black hair, sparkling purple eyes, and legs for **days**. He sighed, whispering beneath his breath a single word of "beauty"

He heaved suddenly, his lungs and chest muscles growing taught with tension as his worst memory- rather a nightmare- sprang back from the depths of his mind. A wild punch so forceful, it was like being knocked back on your board riding the crystal waves at Varadero Beach in Cuba. The stifling gags of air made it feel like he was drowning beneath the immense weight of the water, and the hopelessness of not being able to help Pidge or Hunk brought him back to his first face to face shark encounter. The scar wrapped around his ankle was his medal of proof.

At some point, he must have either passed out or dozed off, because the next thing he knew he was in the strong and muscular arms of the black paladin, who was looking down with concern for his teammate. He lifted him up with ease and took to carrying him hunched over his strong shoulders.

He was set down gently in the Lounge Room ontop of a pile of some soft pillows and blankets. Through half-lidded eyes, he smiled at the familiar jet black hair and tuft of white fringe that he knew all too well. Watching as the weary black paladin propped him up against a mountain of fluffy pillows opposite to the couch, Lance gave him a signature blue paladin smile, grateful for the new company after the many nightmares he has already faced.

Shiro took to leaning on his own small mountain of pillows as a way to get comfortable. It gave Lance the opportunity to notice the matching white shirt and pants combo he was wearing- the same thing that all patients admitted to the infirmary wear and the same thing he was wearing.

"How are you holding up bud?" Shiro asked his own expression one of warmth and mild concern. 

"Better than you that's for sure" Lance smirked back, turning so that he was facing his comrade. His heart lifted slightly at the chuckle he got back in response. 

"Yeah, it looks like the healing pods put all your pieces back together quite well". The black paladin's eyes suddenly turned downcast as he relaxed further into the couch. Just watching the interactions had Lance feeling heartless pangs of guilt. Ultimately he knew, deep down, that the entire escapade that went down at the base was _his_ fault.

"What happened...after I blacked out everything kinda went fuzzy..."

"Well...for starters, Pidge was really worried about you, you know. Probably more than anyone." Shiro began, stifling a cough in his hand, another pang of guilt resounding in Lance's weak heart. "We did a status update, but your com was down for some reason. It seemed suspicious and no matter how many times Coran tried contacting you, all we got was static. A full stealthy sweep of the base later- trying to avoid all those soldiers and druids- we still came up with nothing. With a mission going on and all, it was like you just vanished into thin air! You had us all worried sick..."

"Look, Shiro... I didn't mean-"

"-I know buddy, I know. W-We eventually tracked you down, thanks to some kind of tracer technology in the suits. Coran mentioned something about how he had it installed in the previous generations of Paladins or something. Hunk and Pidge were the closest one to your location, so naturally, Allura and I sent them in-" Another cough erupted from Shiro's chest as he attempted to quell it with some easy breathing technique. He took a shaky wheezed-filled breath before continuing. "-Within 30 seconds we lost contact with them as well, so we did the only thing leaders would do and went after their last known location. And then..."

"-And then you saw that person about to kill me and chose to act" Lance finished, trying his best to hide the death grip he had on his ribs as he scooched himself upwards on the massive mountains of pillows, determined to have a proper talk with Shiro without looking like a bedridden idiot who got himself all these wounds. Shiro nodded solemnly, choosing to look away from his comrade, his own emotional complicatedness painted across his face. They were disconnected and distant now as they let their own silence quiet each other.

"Long ago..." Shiro began with a sense of longing and mystery in his voice. "I had someone very special to me. We lived together, not romantically or anything, in a house my parents owned. They were never home, you know. The busy lives of astronomers and all that...always running off to study a new star or map a new galaxy..."

"I could imagine" Lance whispered back, his own sad smile lacing his face. "My padre, bless his workaholic ass, missed almost every occasion possible. Didn't mean I didn't love him though."

"That's right, you'll always still love them, no matter how pissed you are at them". Shiro chuckled with a sigh thoughtfully, finding the ceiling more appealing to look at now. His own sad smile laced his face.

"After all the years brainwashing those galran bastards pulled on me, I can't remember their name. Kinda kills me deep down, but I know they were more precious to me at the time than anything else was. And honestly, I had completely forgotten all about it...". Another pause of eerie silence hung thick in the air. 

Lance shifted so that he was mimicking the same position as Shiro. He let the blankets wrapped around his torso fall to his waist side. The black paladin straightened himself as well, taking the new movement as his injured comrade finally feeling a bit better than before. "What did you forget about?" He whispered. It was a small inquiry but it was piquing Lance's curiosity.

"I think-" Shiro paused, his right robotic arm beginning to shudder with the slightest of fear. "I think we used to tell stories to each other."

"What, like romantically under the stars or something?" Lance shot back, he himself trying his best to stifle his laughter.

The quirk of the black paladin's eyebrow let Lance know he was woefully unamused. "No, not romantically, you dick. They were special to me, but not in a romantic way or anything like I said before. We...we would go out into the desert, I think. We lived in a desert that was somewhere out far from town for some reason...astronomy and stuff like that, I guess. At night, when the dishes were done and the entire house was cleaned, we would ride out past the ridges to some remote spot..can't remember where though. Then, under a full blanket of stars, I would tell them cool stories of space rangers and alien princesses. Kind of like how were are now actually..."

"Huh. So young Shiro could predict the future then?" Lance gave a hearty chuckle at the story, already appreciating this new closeness they could experience together. He knew little about Shiro's life other than the fact that he was a space captain and pilot for the Garrison and his personal hero. Other than that, he knew basically nothing about his life before they all had become paladins. 

"Haha, I guess. Anyway just seeing their young eyes light up like the stars after each story I would tell...I don't know it...it made me feel like...like-"

"Like they were the only person in the world" Lance finished, a familiar deja vu feeling hammering at the back of his brain. "Like you could sit down and talk for hours at a time about anything under the sun and you wouldn't mind. Like you could entertain them for the rest of your life and you couldn't care less because every hour, every minute, every _second_ , you spent with them was infinitely better than spending it alone by yourself."

"Yeah..." Shiro said breathlessly. He could feel his heart flutter at the very memory, those wide child-like eyes staring up at him and asking, coaxing, him to continue on with his story about the fearless space ranger Red and his ragtag gang of space mercenaries traveling throughout the galaxies. 

_"Are they real hyeong? Are they really really really real Shiro? Can we go all the way up there and meet them someday?"_

_"Yes, of course, we can. I'm sure they would be glad to meet you, me dearest little-"_

"He was- _is_ special to me," Shiro said, meeting Lance's blue-eyed gaze, determination settling on his face. "They are special to me and I would do anything to be with them again...whoever they were. They're alive out there, somewhere, alive and well, I know it. I'll find them, and when we meet again, I'll make sure to tell them all the stories of our adventures, if it means I'll get to see that smiling face of theirs again".

"We'll all help you, Shiro, you can count on that! We all got family and loved ones we want to see again, and believe me when I say that after all the crazy space shit we've been through we all want to go home and be with them again-" Lance chuckled fondly, remembering the first time he went out as a paladin of Voltron and thought he was going to die the first day on the job. He nearly shat his pants and cried when he made back to the castle. "- We'll help you remember them and hopefully track them down back on earth. It'll be a big family reunion, the two of you. Maybe you can even introduce us to them?"

Shiro didn't even realize that his eyes were watering at the corners, or that suddenly it was getting harder to breathe. Every breath of air made his chest squeeze tighter and just looking at Lance made him want a hug even more. He had forgotten, under all the senile bullshit this youngster liked to pull, that Lance was actually a sincere guy who cared about others' feelings more than his own. "...Thank you Lance" he croakily whispered under the rasp of his voice. His own smile matched that of his blue paladin counterpart, and for a brief second, the two shared in a hearty laugh, their joy bouncing off the walls of the pristine white Lounge. That was to say until Coran burst through the sliding door, his own tears streaking down his face.

"THERE you two are!! Having an old man like me with such refined taste worry so much like a-a- like a Gigantous Horadeous!!!" Coran whimpered aimlessly, flinging himself around Lance's skinny waist. The blue paladin scratched the back of his head, his fingers rubbing the shaven sides and carding through the tuft of the brunette on top, a small form of a blush forming around his cheeks. "You two can't just wander off from the Infirmary whenever you see fit! Your injured comrades. Injured mojitos. Injured Ragnarficas. Injured Suriocokos. injured Kiogos. Injured Flarriareis. Injured Typho-"

"Okay, Okay Coran we get it" Shiro interrupted, his voice playful as he looked fondly at the babbling Altean. "Lance and I are fine, alright. I just wanted to regroup a little and relax that all". Stammering, Lance added "Yeah...Shiro found me in the infirmary and just thought I would be more comfortable here in the Lounge. We've just been chatting, nothing too hardcore I swear!". The orange-haired altean's crows feet narrowed as he squinted up at his Lance, the tears beginning to slow from their outpouring state. Lance only gave him an awkward nod. Coran was truly like a dad to him and all the other paladins (and he certainly acted like it)

With some coaxing (and some much-needed prying) the two paladins were able to get Coran off of Lance and were able to walk the 10,000+-year-old Altean to the command deck, the orange-haired oldie crying all the way there. For Lance, more pangs of guilt sunk deep in his heart as he finally came to terms with what happened at the base. 

Lance held up his hand, the same one that was inadvertently crushed beneath the pale foot of that omega. Like magic, his bones were all in order and the only scarring left was some reddish tissue that were at the seams between his knuckles and fingers. He poked at the fleshy part of his thumb, the painful memory of his bone spearing through his skin as the pale foot mashed his hand between the rocks. He glided over his nails which were still an ugly purple, the sudden memory of the blood spewing from his tips and splattering across his hands was bringing back what he could only assume to be some sort of ghostly phantom pains. He really almost ended up dying this time, and so did all the others. All of them were basically slaughtered by that omega. Pidge... Hunk...

_Allura_

_Whoever they were_ , Lance thought, a sudden wave of resentment hanging thick on his leather-bound tongue. He was angry, to say the least, about all the events that occurred at the base. He couldn't get the words they said to him out of his head, the giant black sword, and their hate-filled look in their eyes. All of it was so memorable it caused a pure ice-cold shiver to fall down his spine. Just thinking of them, raising that weapon high above their head with every intention of ending his life...He had cheated death before, but that had to have been the biggest gambling cheat of all of history. And if he knew one thing about gambling with death, it was that Death. always. **collected**.

_Whoever they were...they were going to pay dearly for what they did to all of us_ Lance concluded, a fury rising deep within him, one he had never experience before. 

_**I would make sure of that. Personally.** _

_********* _

The deep catacombs at the bottom (as far south as anyone could or want to go) of the Zarkonias are largely uninhabited, said for a few rats and other universal rodents hanging around the dead predecessors of the great Galran Empire. Each ancient warrior is laid to rest here, and while dark and musty, it serves as a memorial to the beginnings of the galran race stretching eons back from the present day. _Nothing_ is alive down here.

Well, except for a lone druid, draped in all purple mute capes and hoods, wandering down the long stretched hall decorated with ancients weapons and banners. It made it's way down this stoned hall to the very end, reciting an incantation to open the flat walled doors. It would have been inaccessible to anyone who could not master the ancient dark arts of the Galra, passed down from generation to generation. The druid pushed through, and on the other side stood the most complex and oldest observatory known to the Galran History. The Xistrazon

And in the center stood The Supreme Sorceress of the Dark Arts, Haggar.

Around her stood other druids, the 3 High Druids Alpphya, Tryphya, and Cronaphya, all standing around the ancient circle of arts that glowed an eerie purple green from the bloodied imprint on the stone floor. The druid pulled their hood down lower, making their way down the stairs and presenting themself behind Haggar, who was looking up fondly at the night sky. 

"We have received confirmation, your Supreme Sorceress of Dark Art, that the Honervarius has plotted a course and is on it's way to the Zarkonias. It is still some galaxies away, but our intel suggests that it should be here in about four Vargas, and with it, the First and Second Princes of the empire." Alpphya shifted in her small seat, her red long nails digging into the armrest " And what of the base on Crevatan?" she asked, her cloak flowing over her long slender fingers.

"Destroyed, by the First Prince. There was an aerial battle against...the Castle of Lions. In the base assault, the Second Prince was confronted by Voltron and was injured but remained conscious. As for the First Prince, he ordered the destruction of the Crevatan base and chose to let the Castle go. They disappeared into the wormhole, courtesy of the Teleduv. We could not track them any further."

"No...matter..." Haggar wheezed, her voice rasped as she stretched her thin arms over the circle, the soft purple glow growing intensified as the observatory began to shake violently, the walls distorting around themselves as the small black hole opened up in the center.

"Once...he knows of the truth...then, Prince...Lotor...will understand...his destiny. His...place...on the throne...will...not...be jeopardized...by...the... _ **Halfbreed**_."

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this is one of my Voltron fanfictions. You can view the rest on my Wattpad account with the same username. I wanted to start posting this story on Archive of Our Own because I felt like it would get a better response. Feel free to comment whatever you like, I don't really care.
> 
> 5/7/20 UPDATE-  
> Hey, so I just wanted to make a temporary update for everyone following the story so far. I have done (and will be doing) some chapter editing on the earlier chapters to make the language easier to read. I am by no means changing the plot line at all, but the way I wrote it in the past compared to the way I write now just doesn't add up. This will make the language sound more mature and easier for everyone to read. I have also updated the tags to the story.  
> More chapters coming soon!


End file.
